August 24, 2008

First, the good news. At 5’10” and size 12 (UK, I’m guessing), Leah Stone was told she was too fat to model. Now, however, she will compete for the title of Miss England after beating out 200 other girls to win Miss London.

Then there’s the heartbreaking news. Make sure your cup is full and running over with Sanity Watchers points as you’ll need them. Allegedly, a 1,000-pound woman killed her 2-year-old nephew. The challenge now is how to get the housebound 27-year-old to appear in court. The comments on the Xanga blog are cruel, insensitive, judgmental, reeking of privilege, etc. If you go to the link to the actually news story, there are about 9 more stories at the bottom of the page related to obesity. They definitely teach fat-hate.

Every time you think something’s improving, the world takes another huge step back.

What’s a parent to do? “Most important is to practice good sleep hygiene techniques,” said Dr. Elsie M. Taveras, the lead author and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard, who is herself the mother of an infant and a toddler. “No TV in the bedroom, no caffeinated drinks and so on. Getting a good night’s sleep is not just to be at our best the next day; it’s really to assure good health.”

OK. Who gives their TODDLERS caffeine and puts TVs in their bedrooms? Apparently parents of obese children. Because all obese parents have poor childrearing skills.

Honorand J.K. Rowling told the afternoon exercises audience, “Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A win-win situation!”

Hmph. A win-win situation would have been Rowling NOT praising stress as a weight loss method.

Tweety from one of my longtime fora, GeekCulture, has started a new blog, American Fairy Tales. He only has one post so far, but more are promised. The concept is original: America lacks fairy tales like the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Anderson. The story posted, about an ogre named Ormley, is cleverly written and contains just the right amount of descriptive phrases and humor. Unfortunately, the message of the story demonstrates the author’s wholehearted subscription to the popular media’s propaganda that fat and overweight are caused by eating fried, high-fat-content foods and that those foods, as well as being overweight or obese, leads to heart attacks and death.

I forget who said it, probably Aristotle or Socrates of Plato, but “As I think, I am,” or something like that. Apparently that’s how it works with weight loss, at least, according to this article. Maybe that’s why our loved ones tend to respond with “but you just ate (insert number) of hours ago” when we say we’re hungry?

I discovered this article by Naomi Wolf on another blog whose address I forget. It’s an article about pornography and how it has affected the young men and women of today. Insert “media” for “pornography,” and change “sexuality” to “obesity,” and you have a totally accurate portrait of today’s attitudes, too. But then again, it’s a strong possibility – if not reality – that pornography has affected our attitudes about obesity. Read the article, then leave your comments here.